Time for a Health Kondo

Eek, something very, very strange has happened. I have run out of words to say. I don’t think I’ve ever had bloggers block, normally I have too many posts to choose from, but right now I am obsessed with tidying and all that clearing clutter seems to have also wiped my head clean of ideas. I blame Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo. Like everyone else in the world I have bought her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever – I don’t know why but it just kept nagging and nagging at me, squealing ‘buy me Helen oh cluttered one’ – and so I did.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about Kondo’s basic theory is that you should only keep things that ‘spark joy’ – right now I seem to just ‘keep things’ – and when I found myself about to order ANOTHER cupboard from IKEA to put my shoes in I decided things had to change. After all, as The Boyfriend regularly points out, I did once write a book called Dejunk Your Life!

This is Marie Kondo. I like her. Image: @Random House

I admit, if Marie herself was looking over my shoulder she would be horrified as I’m not quite sticking to the plan – I’m referring to what I’m doing as a pre-Kondo as I’m not quite brave enough to completely gut my wardrobe (the day will come shortly though, now I can see everything I’m already looking at things I wavered over and thinking ‘you’re out matey’) but I’ve not done badly. There’s 15 boxes in the garage marked ‘car boot sale’ and that’s just from my clothes, shoes, toiletries, books and some stuff around my office. Just looking at my book shelf which now actually has a spare shelf rather than books piled every which way makes me happy and calm – and my bedroom has never been tidier. It seems it’s quite easy to put things away when you’re not dislocating a shoulder trying to ram them into a drawer.

So what have I got rid of…no don’t worry I’m not going to give you an itemised declaration, but I will give you a brief list of some of my health and fitness related items.

Anything past its sell-by date – that cleared out three drawers of press samples. I’m pretty sure fish oil that expired in 2013 is not going to ‘spark joy’ in my body if I take it!

Any gym kit didn’t pass the ‘spark joy’ clothing test – this included three pairs of trainers that don’t fit, my Aldi running shorts that bare my butt to the world but I keep ‘just in case’ and any running shirt that makes me feel fat and unfit rather than able to take on the world. I’m talking to you all those white race shirts people insist on giving out.

Any recipe books that make me feel inadequate for not whipping up a raw, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, untouched by human hand, danced over by unicorns meal from scratch three times a day. I’ve still got more healthy eating cookbooks than I will ever use but the seriously holier-than-thou ones – they’ve gone!

All the boxes of herbal teas that make me feel faintly sick. Don’t get me wrong, I like herbal tea – in fact the new Pukka Blackberry Beauty (Pukka Herbs Blackcurrant Beauty 20 Bag) is so good I’ve actually starting having it first thing in the morning instead of normal tea. But the box of posh French green tea bags that Lady Gaga drinks and that cost me £18 – yet make me feel violently ill and so has been sitting in the cupboard for two years reminding me that I was once stupid enough to pay £18 for some tea – now, gone.

I must admit I’m loving every second of my new Kondo based tidying epiphany – in fact it’s taking all my willpower to sit down here and type this rather than going through my pen drawer! So, if you’ll excuse me…I’ve got staples to sort. But if you’ve got any ideas for posts – send them my way. Anything you’d like me to check out, investigate or try (even if it’s so you don’t have to?). Or maybe some of you might like to do me a guest blog or a Q&A – it’s quite friendly over here you know.

Oh, and if you’re inspired enough to buy the book, you can do it here*

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2 Comments

Okay, funny you should mention wanting some new topics, but I’ve been wondering about something and thought you might be the perfect person to answer this burning question. I know it hurts a lot more to get waxed right before Shark Week, but how does the arrival of Aunt Flo affect training? I remember from the days when I used to run, that some days it felt like dragging a refrigerator up a hill, and other days I could have circled the globe several times before breakfast, for no apparent reason. But now I’m wondering if I ought to have been paying more attention to Her Monthliness. (The best piece I found on this subject was written in 2011, so maybe there has been more study since then?)

Also, you know I’m always up for guest blogging about weird Japan stuff, so will scamper over to my favorite health product store and have a look to see if there’s anything worth writing about.

My name is Helen. And what makes me happy is discovering the newest, strangest or most fun products, studies and ideas in the worlds of diet, fitness and health. I do this all day every day - and some of them make me go 'oooh' ...
* Oooh - I just learned something
* Oooh - that's bonkers
* Oooh - that's fun/innovative/fantastic.
Those are the things you'll find on this blog.